It had been awhile since the last ski day so I booked a 2 hour block ticket for Mont Bellevue online late last night. I booked in for the 5pm to 7pm slot. It cost all of $12 being a resident of the city. I arrived at Bellevue just before 5 to boot up and get ready. It was a nice mild day today in Sherbrooke compared to the last few weeks ...

After last week's snowfall, and having a few days off from work, it was high time to make a return to the slopes. With the variety of trails offered, I made the choice of visiting Ski Vorlage, a mountain I always love visiting. All of the main trails are open, with the exception of Carnaval, Chien Chaud, La Chute and Headwall. The conditions at the...

Welcome to the white room. Over 40cms dropped in the Ottawa/Gatineau area on Monday and Camp Fortune got a lot of it. The drive up was a white knuckle ride in my tiny car, but I made it. At one point the snow was coming down at 10cms an hour! What can I really say, the conditions were amazing. Minimal crowds and with heavy ...

Night mission to Fortune! Night skiing started on Dec. 27th and Camp Fortune has managed to open up most of the trails on Skyline. Considering the lack of snowfall and the up/down temperatures, they should be commended. The drive was quick from Ottawa as most people were still on holidays or still working from home.  When I...

With the day off today, I managed to get away to Mont Gleason for the morning. I arrived at the mountain at 8:45 with the temperature of -9 degrees, and no wind. It was supposed to be a partly sunny day, however it ended up being cloudy. Oh, there was about 10 minutes of sunshine that did manage to poke through! I purchased my t...

Over the Christmas break, we rented an Airbnb on the slopes of Calabogie Peaks, and enjoyed three days of skiing and exploring the Calabogie Region. I took my drone up the day we arrived, and captured some the following aerial photographs of the landscape.   For the 3 days we skied, the resort was relatively quiet, with no lines-possibly ...

The start of my 2021-22 season began today at Mont Orford. I arrived at the mountain at 8:15 to a cloudy sky with some lingering flurries, and the temperature was -8 degrees. The P2 parking lot was quite busy at this time as cars were arriving all at the same time to get the first runs of the day. It had snowed a bit the night before, at least an i...

Last week, Ski Mount Pakenham announced that they would be open on the weekend of the 4-5 of December. The cold nighttime temperatures allowed them to make enough snow to open up one intermediate trail (The Loop to Lower Exhibition), serviced by one quad chairlift (Mika). Their magic carpet and learning area was open as well. Below is a m...

Last season my last day of skiing was March 14th, the next day everything closed and went into lockdown. Well, it's March 17th, 2021, and spring skiing is in full effect. The Gatineau and Ottawa area has gone into a bit of an up-down meltdown. The beginning of March looked promising with a decent snowpack. January and February had br...

Wow, a sleeper powder day! What a way to end a workday. The snow started coming down heavy in Gatineau around noon and didn't stop. By the time I got to the Skyline parking lot, there were 10cms already on the ground. This would be the best day of the season so far. Loads of fresh stuff, almost no lines and creamy turns. Goggles were a mu...

Have they cut down all the bush near the road? The view is a lot better. Friday morning at Camp Fortune was a great way to end the week.  The snow was coming down hard layering the perfectly groomed runs with 2-4cms of fresh stuff. Even a couple of centimetres has a great physiological effect on your skiing! Once again Camp Fortune has done an amazing job dealing with a very odd season plus ...

Well, my Day 2 of this extraordinary ski season is in the books. An outing to Mont Orford today was absolutely needed as it had been over a month since the last time I had gone out. I had arrived at the mountain at 8:15, and the parking lot was already starting to fill up. The temperature was a nice mild -5 degrees under a mostly cloudy sky, howeve...

Finally, 2021 has arrived! After having spent NYE enjoying a three-course fondue and celebratory drinks, I spent most of the day relaxing at home with plans to catch the last few runs of the day. We enjoyed a late afternoon brunch (or perhaps it was more of a "linner") of mimosas, eggs benedict, bacon, fresh fruit and yogurt to get the evening star...

Well my 2020-21 ski season has begun....finally! The weather recently in the Townships has not been the best, and upcoming weather reports aren't any better. So off to Mont Orford this morning for a few early season laps. I arrived at the mountain at 8:15, and it was already getting mild with a temperature of +2 degrees, and skies were partly cloud...

I rolled into Camp Fortune around 8:45am on a snowy Sunday. This was my first day of the season and probably my latest start in years. Warm weather in November, little or no snow in December and COVID haven't helped! I was directed to the main parking lot in the valley. Then after suiting up in the parking lot you are screened at a makeshift gate. ...

Skison 2020 got its official start on Friday, October 30, 2020 with Sommet Saint-Sauveur's soft launch opening, and while I was not quick enough on the draw to participate, I was all set for Day 2 which delightfully fell on Hallowe'en! As always, Sommet Saint-Sauveur is the first to open in the East, even beating out "longest season in the East" ri...

Sunday and the last day of March Break in Quebec. The time change was painful but the mountain was perfect with all 102 trails open. Temperatures in the morning were around -3c and by the afternoon +3c. Bonus, zero wind. We rolled in around 8:30am and stayed till last chair. The day was that good with perfect groomers or moguls and trees galore. Th...

Today while visiting my sister in Tewkesbury just north of Quebec City, I took some time to go to Stoneham to ski some laps for the morning. We had received a little freezing rain during the night, that was covered with a layer of about 5cms of snow. I arrived at the mountain early for the best parking, and to beat the March Break crowd for some ea...

It is the start of the March Break week in Quebec, and to kick it off a visit to Mont Gleason was in order. I had been in touch a good friend of mine earlier in the week to see if he would be able to join me, and it worked out that he was available. We usually would meet at Gleason once a season to ski however it didn't work out last year. It was g...

Well, we didn't quite get the snowmageddon that was hyped but the skiing at Camp Fortune was great regardless. 10cms of wet snow had fallen overnight and it would snow heavily all morning bringing the total to close to 25cms by midday. The drive was not great as highway 5 was like a cart track but it was worth the trek. With temperatures around zer...

With the forecast of a sunny day today, it was off to discover a new area, and that choice was Vallee du Parc in Shawinigan, just north of Trois Rivieres. I had thought about Vallee du Parc for the last week or so checking out their website for info, and their trail map. It looked like it was going to be a good choice. I left Sherbrooke at 7:00am t...

What a difference a couple of weeks and a couple of big snowfalls make. Mont Ste Marie was in peak "Winter Wonderland" mode on Sunday. Over 10cms had fallen overnight and the snow would come down heavy the rest of the day. The 1200ft vertical mountain was 100% open including all the glades. The drive up was a little greasy and we got stuck behind a...

What a difference a couple of weeks make. The week before, warm and rainy, enough to make everything in town brown again, icy and sloppy in the mountains, then a dump the weekend after of some 40+ cm of snow to cover up the mess left behind. Has Mother Nature been off her meds again? Well, being that it was a sunny day, travels took me all the way ...

17cms of blower came in sideways Saturday night. The result was fantastic skiing Sunday at Camp Fortune. We managed to dig out and make it to the Skyline before 9am. Camp Fortune had groomed on Saturday night so there was a nice layer of light powder on top of a firm base. Conditions of course were excellent. Smooth and smeary. After a bunch of run...

This Saturday was the fourth in the series of eight Nuit Blanches at Bromont, where you can ski from 8AM til 2AM. We were also graced with a forecast for a reasonable storm that would bring 15 to 20 cm to the townships. The storm was to begin at 5pm, leaving plenty of time during the day to relax and prepare for some serious night skiing in prime c...